"Although we valued this asset and the business was profitable, the sale of ReplayTV to DirecTV makes the most sense for this business, its employees and us," the company said in a statement.

D&M Holdings will operate existing service contracts for current ReplayTV subscribers for the "foreseeable future."

DirecTV has been involved extensively with NDS in developing its DVRs since it "broke up" with TiVo. And I have to say, as an owner of their HD DVR, they've been doing a pretty good job of it. The HR20-700 isn't perfect, but it pretty well rocks as a DVR and has a lot of extra features: plays music and pictures off remote shares, and even downloads supplied network content over a broadband connection.

So what do they want with ReplayTV? Well, a few guesses.

1. Patents - you can never have too many patents.
2. Multi-room viewing - Replay's first implementation of this in like 2000-2001 has remained one of the best and most reliable in a DVR.
3. Software DVR - Possibly to accompany a PC-card based DirecTV receiver.
4. Internet-based scheduling - The MyReplayTV.com service allowed users to program their DVR from a centralized server.
5. Remote Scheduling - ReplayTVs would recognize other ReplayTVs on the local network and allow situations like "no tuners available" to be handled by offering to record a show on another DVR. "Sorry, this unit is busy during that time. Record on Bedroom DVR instead?"
6. Remote Scheduling II - The first remote scheduling feature allowed 3rd party developers to use the same networking functions and allow localized remote scheduling from PC software.
7. Internet Video Send - OK, so ReplayTV (then under Sonicblue) got sued for this one. It was a feature that let you send a show to ReplayTV box belonging to another owner. It was supposed to be for "friends and family", but in the internet age that's a little nebulous (hi to all my friends on poopli.com). So it meant that I didn't necessarily have to subscribe to HBO to watch THe Sopranos, I just had to know someone who did and could send it to me. I know this is a little far-fetched, but think about it: DirecTV has a serious advantage here. They know what programming I'm subscribed to. Just like with the downloadable content they're now offering that is limited by my subscription - they could actually control what programs I send to who. They could actually be in the position of offering a peer-to-peer sharing service that is Hollywood-friendly.

The PC DVR software that ReplayTV has been developing over the past couple of years. It's pretty decent software actually, but what's the market for it? It's been nearly three years to the day since they announced this software and it's gone nowhere. Not to mention that home theater PCs are notoriously problematic to build, maintain, and actually use on a day-to-day basis, and then you have to have all kinds of outboard receivers and tuners attached (usually controlled with an IR blaster). There has been talk of DirecTV receiver cards for PCs forever now to enable home theater PCs to directly tune and record DirecTV content. Microsoft Vista was supposed to bring this panacea of home theater ability (enabled mainly by its content protection schemes), but that has barely played out so far in the Cablecard realm. It could be that DirecTV is looking for some software to bundle with their PC receivers and decided that they would feel more comfortable owning the solution end-to-end.

My hope and dream is that DirecTV is giving up on the "build our own DVR software" approach and has acquired an expert company to re-engineer their existing HR20 devices. This would be similar to the move that Comcast made when they inked the deal with Tivo to build DVR software for their existing Motorola DVRs. Comcast will not replace the Motorola boxes with a new Tivo box. They will simply roll new software out to replace the existing DVR software (Microsoft I think). Hopefully, DirecTV is going to task REplayTV to build a new DVR software package to roll out to their existing HR20 platform. But only time will tell.

I also have one HR20 and really like it. It is a little buggy. And it definitely has a few missing features (like MRV and internet scheduling). But if I could snap my fingers and turn it into a HR20 running ReplayTV software, I would do it in a second. And I would also go out and buy another so I could finally stream HD from my entertainment room to my bedroom.

Just speculation here, but D* and Tivo have always had a rocky relationship. They parted ways for awhile (remember the R15 DVR? Or the current HR20 HD-DVR), but have apparently kissed and made up, for the moment.

If D* can come up with their own DVR that isn't a total POS and can outperform the highly popular D*Tivo, then they might actually be able to give Tivo the shove-off once and for all.

Just a thought.

---------

ADDENDUM: The "POS DVR" I'm referring to is the R-15. Hence why it was being compared the the D*Tivo._________________Still no news from New Zealand.
If we ever get any, we'll be sure to let you know.

Last edited by rm -rf *.* on Thu Dec 13, 2007 10:29 am; edited 1 time in total

I was a huge critic of the HR20-700 when it first came out just more than a year ago. It was a mess, and could barely handle the functions that define a DVR - schedule, record, playback.

It's still got some quirks, and still doesn't have all the features that some of the other DVRs (including Replay) have had. But I have to admit that it's pretty damn good. I would be hard-pressed as some have done on other forums to call the HR20 a "mess". I'm frankly very happy with it. And I think DirecTV and NDS (who is building the DirecTV DVRs that aren't TiVo) are pretty content with their current development arrangements.

It has to be better than the Cox and regular Scientific Atlanta DVRs so I am all for it. Maybe they will re-release a HD replay. I don't even care about the room to room sharing or internet sharing, but the faster menus and better tv guides along with the skip buttons would be awesome.

I thought it to be odd news. Sad that D&M never did anything with the brand other than let it fade away.

I was with Dish Network for a while and their VIP622/VIP722 DVRs are very nice (but still not ReplayTVs).

I'm now with DIRECTV for the high def and the HR20-700 is pretty good. I really miss the multi-room sharing of content with ReplayTVs that so far nobody else has implemented. (It would be nice to have a second HR20 upstairs and be able to view its recorded content from the other HR20 downstairs.) Maybe with this purchase they can do something like that._________________-Gary

The PC DVR software that ReplayTV has been developing over the past couple of years. It's pretty decent software actually, but what's the market for it? It's been nearly three years to the day since they announced this software and it's gone nowhere. Not to mention that home theater PCs are notoriously problematic to build, maintain, and actually use on a day-to-day basis, and then you have to have all kinds of outboard receivers and tuners attached (usually controlled with an IR blaster).

But it's probably just patents.

Anyone else have any guesses or ideas?

Didn't I (and many others) say that RTV PC Edition was DOA because it was late to market and had nothing new to offer? Sure looks like it truly is dead now.

Oh, just thought there might be some more info about DirectTV's plans , if any, on WHAT they might to do with RPTV. Mine still works great, no HD but that's OK, and it appears they plan on keeping the programming service going for now. So I'll keep lurking here until something comes out. Thanks . . .

I don't know it for a fact, but you can read the announcement at the top of this thread. And, you can Google search to see what was thought of the sale. DNNA had already gotten out of the hardware business and their software solution didn't communicate with the hardware units. I would assume that DirecTV wants the software for their own use, either for integration or for patents. But, it seems highly unlikely that DirecTV would produce a DirecReplayTV...

Henry_________________Here's my Poop (I know that's the old Poopli, but I like it that way!)

I've been meaning to explain to rm that while Bigjohns is a member of this forum, I don't think that the other members here have any idea what the saying is about. It's probably best to leave that to the AVSforum crowd...

Anyway, sometimes the humor is better than anything else going on. It is a bit sarcastic, but I don't think that many others are hopeful that DirecTV was going to develop anything with the ReplayTV hardware. I took the name "DirecReplayTV" from one of the web articles I found through Google as the fictitious hardware that the sale was going to generate. While DirecTiVo was real, DirecReplayTV is a fabrication to generate humor...

Henry_________________Here's my Poop (I know that's the old Poopli, but I like it that way!)

I've been meaning to explain to rm that while Bigjohns is a member of this forum, I don't think that the other members here have any idea what the saying is about. It's probably best to leave that to the AVSforum crowd...

But, since it appears SO DARN OFTEN across the ReplayTV-related forums (Send BigJohns a cigar), granted that it's *ONLY* (or majorly) from rm, *EXACTLY* what does it mean (for the rest of us)? _________________Low Post Count != Low Knowledge ergo High Post Count != High KnowledgeSig LINKs

I've been meaning to explain to rm that while Bigjohns is a member of this forum, I don't think that the other members here have any idea what the saying is about. It's probably best to leave that to the AVSforum crowd...

But, since it appears SO DARN OFTEN across the ReplayTV-related forums (Send BigJohns a cigar), granted that it's *ONLY* (or majorly) from rm, *EXACTLY* what does it mean (for the rest of us)?

For those who understand, no explanation is necessary.

For those who don't, no explanation is possible._________________Still no news from New Zealand.
If we ever get any, we'll be sure to let you know.

I also have one HR20 and really like it. It is a little buggy. And it definitely has a few missing features (like MRV and internet scheduling). But if I could snap my fingers and turn it into a HR20 running ReplayTV software, I would do it in a second. And I would also go out and buy another so I could finally stream HD from my entertainment room to my bedroom.